Westhampton Beach Village Board Could Withdraw Police Commissioner Idea

After hearing a long and passionate round of criticism from more than a dozen residents last week, the Westhampton Beach Village Board is backing away from its plan to hire a police commissioner.“I heard the reaction of the people at the public hearing, and even though we spent a lot of time coming up with this solution, I’m not going to recommend that we move forward with it,” Mayor Maria Moore said Wednesday morning.The board held a public hearing during its regular meeting last Thursday night, February 5, on the proposed law, which would have created the position of a chief administrator to oversee both the police department and Chief Trevor Gonce, and was met with tremendous backlash from the public.“This is the worst idea I’ve heard any board come up with since I’ve been in the village, and this should not be considered any further,” Hermon “Bo” Bishop, a former special prosecutor for the village, said during last week’s meeting, echoing the sentiments of many of the more than 60 community members in attendance.Ms. Moore said she and the Village Board will hold a special work session today, February 12, to discuss feedback from last week's meeting, including proposed alternatives. After the 5 p.m. public work session, the board will adjourn the meeting and move into executive session to discuss the candidates they had lined up for commissioner and how they could be used to fill one of the alternative positions, Ms. Moore said Tuesday.She said she doesn’t know what the outcome of that meeting will be, but added that, at the moment, it is unlikely that the board will move forward with the commissioner position. “We want to have the meeting so we can all discuss the feedback we received and see what our other options are,” she said.Since first introducing the idea of hiring a commissioner in December, the Village Board has said the purpose of the position would be to assist Chief Gonce with the process of getting the department accredited by the State Department of Criminal Justice Services. However, the language of the legislation raised red flags by stating that the police chief would “report to and be supervised by the police commissioner,” essentially giving the commissioner the same powers currently held by the chief.“Read your language, read what you’re intending to establish,” village resident Dean Speir, author of the On The Beach Blog, said while addressing the board last week. “Once you get it in place, I have a feeling it’s going to be hard to undo, because the practicality of what you’re talking about is you’re putting in a ‘super chief’ who can’t even cover a shift if there’s a problem.”Ms. Moore insisted that the language was crafted that way by village labor attorney Robert Zuckerman to eliminate any ambiguity as to what the commissioner’s authority would be, adding that Chief Gonce would not lose any of his power. She also said the expectation would be for the chief and the commissioner to work together.Suffolk County Civil Service Department Director Alan Schneider said that, legally, the village could not give the commissioner the duties of running the day-to-day operations of the department, because that would, in essence, demote Chief Gonce to a lieutenant.“If they sent a job spec in to us that had police commissioner on the title but they had duties normally done by a police chief, we would classify it as a police chief,” he said. “But they already have one.”There is no law, however, prohibiting the village from creating a position above the chief, Mr. Schneider said, though he added that he believes, personally, that it would be a waste of money. “If I were a taxpayer there, I would say if all he’s doing is going between the chief and the board, why not just let the chief go to the board directly?” he said.At last week’s meeting, community members suggested that the board consider hiring a confidential secretary to help Chief Gonce with the accreditation work, or simply bring in a paid consultant with experience in an accredited department.Ms. Moore said the commissioner would be hired for only three years, with the specific purpose of getting the department up to speed on accreditation and in other areas, which she did not specify. “We’re acting in good faith, with the best intentions,” she said. “In our opinion, the commissioner would work in consultation with the chief, with him and his duties.”When questioned on the subject by resident Victor Levy, Ms. Moore said that if board members had instead hired William Wilson Jr., former Southampton Town and Southampton Village police chief—they offered him the job in early December before almost immediately rescinding it, prior to promoting then-Lieutenant Gonce—they would not have considered hiring a commissioner.“The person that Mr. Levy’s referring to,” the mayor said, opting not to name Mr. Wilson during the hearing, “had a great deal of experience working with accredited departments, so we were not going to bring in a commissioner.”Chief Gonce said he would like to be able to hire a confidential secretary, as are found in most East End police departments, to help him with accreditation and instead use the money set aside for the commissioner post to hire new police officers.In his budget proposal that he submitted this past week, Chief Gonce set aside $3,000 to cover accreditation expenses and also requested permission to hire three new officers, a process which he said could be completed within just a few months. He also requested that the board keep the position of lieutenant funded in the next fiscal year. Ms. Moore has repeatedly said the commissioner would replace the lieutenant and create a cost savings for the department, as Chief Gonce and the commissioner would have had a smaller combined salary than former Chief Ray Dean and then-Lieutenant Gonce.“If they don’t fund that position, it would kill the morale in the department in terms of advancement,” Chief Gonce said. “Maybe no one is ready to move into the position just yet, but having it there gives the officers something to work toward.”During last week’s meeting, Deputy Mayor Charlie Palmer was perhaps the most vocal proponent of the commissioner position. Mr. Palmer said the board was attempting to create “a team to support Trevor Gonce,” adding that it wouldn’t make the hire unless it would save money.“This resolution is not hiring anybody,” he said. “This is starting the groundwork to start something. Like the mayor said, we will not do this if there is not a cost savings.”Mr. Palmer also had to defend a comment he made to Newsday prior to the meeting in which he stated that he wanted to “shake up” the culture of the police department. He said he didn’t mean to insinuate that “heads would roll.”While Trustees Patricia DiBenedetto and Hank Tucker, in response to pressure from audience members, both said they would not feel comfortable voting for the legislation as is, Trustee Ralph Urban joined the mayor and deputy mayor in defense of the proposed law, although he said the resolution could benefit from some tweaking.